January 18, 2011

Mark Memmott

As Chinese President Hu Jintao begins a state visit to Washington, among the issues on a lot of minds are the value of the Chinese yuan and whether Hu would like to see the dollar lose its status as the world's reserve currency.

In a conversation today with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, All Things Considered co-host Robert Siegel asked about Hu's statement in The Wall Street Journal that "the current international currency system is the product of the past." Is that a sign that "it's a goal of China to replace the dollar as the currency used in world trade?" Robert asked.

"No, absolutely not and there's no reasonable prospect of that happening," Geithner said, in part because "China is a huge beneficiary of the system that exists today." Here's that part of their conversation:

Geithner also said that the U.S. wants China to "move faster" on boosting the value of the yuan, and that he believes China will do that because "it's in their interest to do so":

Much more from their discussion is on today's ATC. Click here to find an NPR station that broadcasts or streams the show. And we'll add the as-broadcast version of their conversation later today. Copyright 2011 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.